Hlal
| Hlal | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Aliases | Avachel, The Jester, the Keeper of Tales, the Pursued | |
| Alignment | Chaotic Good | |
| Divine Rank | Lesser Deity | |
| Pantheon | Draconic | |
| Portfolio | Humor, Storytelling, Inspiration | |
| Domains | Chaos, Dragon, Good, Trickery, Rune | |
| Home Plane | Arborea | |
| Worshippers | Dragons, Bards, Performers | |
| Favoured Weapon | Shortsword, claw | |
Hlal is the Dragon Goddess of Humor, Stories, Songs and Freedom in Dungeons & Dragons. Taking the form of a friendly female Copper Dragon, she is an extroverted deity who eagerly seeks worshippers of all races, dragonblooded or not.
Closely tied to the bardic arts, clerics of Hlal are typically multiclassed cleric/bards who use music, poetry and tall tales to spread the faith. They rarely establish temples to their goddess, save in the largest of cities, where they can double as performance & concert halls - entertainment and worship are inextricably linked for the devout of the Jester. Instead, her clerics create mobile shrines that can be carried easily from place to place, or else they place holy symbols of Hlal inside of theatres, taverns and other places of performance to consecrate them in their goddess' name.
Hlal and her faithful relish sharing story and song; freedom of expression and opinion is central to the Jester's faith, and she teaches that one must be free of all restraint, real or psychological. Needless to say, she has little use for tyrants - especially well-meaning ones - and even less patience for cruelty and bullying.
Whilst not as anarchist or whimsical as Aasterinian, Hlal has a well-established sense of humor; stories and songs about her faithful (or Hlal herself) often involve mistaken identity, impersonation, and merry resolution, whilst they always feature ample measures of audacity, bravery, trickery and humor. Such is the importance of entertainment to this goddess and her faithful that holy quests undertaken by her worshippers strive to be worthy of being immortalized as one the ever-growing tally of tales which are recited as prayers to Hlal.
It is said amongst the faithful that the Keeper of Tales presides over every first performance of a new entertainment piece created by one of her followers. As such, this initial presentation is typically dedicated to her glory or to her amusement, depending on if the piece is serious or comic in tone.
Of all the dragons, it is the copper dragons who most respect and admire her, and serve as her allies; her herald is typically a copper dragon cleric of at least the Very Old status. Other common allies are bards of all races and spellscales.
Hlal gets on famously with Olidammara, but shares a bitter mutual hatred with both Hextor and Vecna.